Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America. We thought it’s also worth recognizing another important birthday on this July 4th – that of Calvin Coolidge…
Tag: Federal Leases
PTO is One of the Few Agencies to Expand
Yesterday (Monday, July 2, 2012), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) announced plans to open regional offices in or around Dallas, Denver, and Silicon Valley, Calif. These offices are in addition to the agency’s already…
Must One Bad Apple Spoil the Barrel?
Both the House and Senate have been working on their respective versions of legislation designed to improve the process by which the federal government can dispose of unneeded and underutilized properties. This legislation has bi-partisan support…
LEED Under Fire
The federal government’s selection of a green building certification system for the next five years has become a controversial issue, with no clear resolution in sight. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) requires GSA…
GovSpeak: “FRPP”
The Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) is a comprehensive and descriptive database of “all real property under the custody and control of all executive branch agencies, except when otherwise required for reasons of national security, in…
GovSpeak: “FRPC”
The interagency Federal Real Property Council (FRPC) was created by provisions in Executive Order 13327, “Federal Real Property Asset Management,” which President George W. Bush signed on February 4, 2004. Executive Order 13327 states: “The policy…
Senate Committee Set to Approve Federal Property Disposition Bill
UPDATE: The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved this legislation on June 29th. The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is set to approve S. 2178, the Federal Real Property Asset Management Reform Act,…
Better Data, National Strategy Needed to Manage Excess and Underused Federal Property
A report released last Wednesday (June 20, 2012) by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that the federal government lacks reliable data about some of its real estate assets, including information about the conditions of…
Extreme Leasing: The Nation’s Most Expensive Office Lease
When we searched for the GSA’s most expensive office lease (measured in rent per square foot) we expected to find it in New York, or Boston, or maybe San Francisco or L.A., but we never expected…
House Committee Votes to Cut GSA Funding
The House Appropriations Committee voted last Wednesday (June 20, 2012) to cut about $100 million from the scandal-plagued GSA’s budget for next year. The legislation—as well as an amendment that denies bonuses to GSA officials under…